Three news events from the last week have highlighted the insane way that Californians are attempting to improve the state’s public school system. We use the definition of “insane” as doing the same thing over and over again and yet expecting different results.

The three events are as follows. First, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman on Friday suspended the state high school exit exam, meaning that tens of thousands of 12th-graders without even a rudimentary grasp of English and math will get their diplomas. Second, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he will use an unexpected windfall of revenue to increase per-pupil public school spending to more than $11,000 a year, in a deal that will stop a teachers union lawsuit. Third, the state Senate voted to require all state school curricula to include discussions of the historical contributions of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people.

Here we see an educational system that is forbidden from applying any sort of minimal testing standard for graduation. The suspended exit exam required that to graduate high school, students must pass a 10th-grade-level test. They begin taking the test in 10th grade, and have six additional opportunities to pass it. To pass, they must merely get 55 percent right in math and 60 percent right in English. If they still can’t pass, they are eligible for various remedial programs.

The judge argued that the system isn’t fair. “The negative effects of scarcity of resources continue to fall disproportionately on English-language learners, particularly with respect to the shortage of teachers who are qualified to teach these students,” he ruled.

So the state can’t apply any standards because some students aren’t taught well in their schools. But no matter how much money the schools receive, the situation keeps getting worse. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, one of the best-funded school systems in the nation, the dropout rate is 25 percent to 50 percent of enrollment. The numbers are frightening, yet LAUSD has 83,000 employees, many of whom work outside the classroom.

Instead of fixing the system, the state is doing the same old thing: throwing more tax dollars at the same mess. Does anyone expect the extra money to change anything?

Now we get to the final example, of the Senate mandating gay studies in various courses. Whatever one thinks of the particular curriculum being promoted, this much is clear: Politically driven curricula imposed from the Legislature on the schools only makes it that much more difficult for school officials to piece together an education that helps kids pass the exit exam.

Increasingly, California college students must take remedial classes, learning what they should have learned in high school. Now it can easily take six years to earn a degree that used to take four years.

What’s needed are healthy doses of competition. That will push up standards, regardless of what type of exit exam is offered, provide a variety of curriculum choices that will help those who don’t excel under the current system, and reduce the power of headline-seeking legislators to dictate what gets taught.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.